In The Heroic Slave, Frederick Douglass invests Madison Washington with the qualities of a Founding Father. However, if a black Washington were to be considered a founder, he would engender a very different kind of nation than the one Washington, Madison, and Jefferson sired. Describe one aspect of the way Douglasss claiming Founding Father status for a black Washington proposes a new or transformed sense of American nationality. Please have this essay go in the direction of one of these questions: How does the state of Virginia represent the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution, and the nation? How does the ship Creole represent the nation? How does the Virginia tavern represent the nation? As a Founding Father, Madison Washington represents a revision of American nationality. How does he represent a vision of the nation different from that of the traditional Founding Fathers? As a Founding Father, Madison Washington represents revolutionary violence. How does Douglass use Washington to present a vision of social change and national transformation? How is Jeffersonian rhetoric employed, critiqued, and revised in The Heroic Slave?
